Why Disney Brings New Hope to the Star Wars Franchise

Disney's $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm could breathe new life into the Star Wars franchise.Image: Simon Lutrin/Wired

What will the seventh Star Wars movie look like? That’s the question bouncing around inside the stormtrooper helmets of every Star Wars fan on the planet, now that news of Disney’s $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm — and a 2015 target date for Star Wars: Episode 7 — has blown everybody’s mind.

Will there be more cartoonish characters like those fury-inducing Ewoks and the ultimate insult to sci-fi integrity, Jar Jar Binks? More stultifying political scenes that would make a U.N. special session on agriculture look interesting, as the victorious rebels go about the process of rebuilding after their defeat of the evil Empire? An actual Disney Princess Leia?

I don’t think so, and here’s why: Disney knows how to make good movies, and how to handle a franchise. In a way, Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm is like a direct shot down the Death Star’s exhaust port. Sure, there will be more toys, more Halloween costumes, more fast-food tie-ins, but merchandising has always been part of the Star Wars universe. All that stuff is galactic gravy, tiny consumer joys for overgrown fanboys (and their families of lil’ fanboys and fangirls).

What truly matters is the movies, and we all know this is where Star Wars has faltered recently — and where Disney can offer new hope.

Lewis Wallace

About

Lewis Wallace is the culture editor of Wired.com. When he’s not working with words, he plays bass in squeezebox rock band Those Darn Accordions.

With one laser-sharp purchase, the Mouse House has set itself astride the greatest sci-fi franchise in history, albeit one that has been mostly running on fumes for a decade, ever since Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones came out in 2002. Directed by Lucas, it was the kind of movie that made you realize the filmmaker was working in a creative vacuum. You could imagine a screening room filled with Lucasfilm talent, and not a single soul willing to point out the film’s flaws to its maker.

Now Disney is in a position to breathe new life into the franchise. For an example of how that might play out, look no further than The Avengers. Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009, the year after the comic book studio made its first self-financed movie, Iron Man. Since acquiring Marvel, Disney has done anything but screw the pooch: The successive films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been solidly entertaining, pleasing comics fans, movie critics and — most importantly — the movie-going public.

The most recent installment, superhero team-up flick The Avengers, flexed Marvel muscle in a way that no other comic book movie ever has, and was rewarded with record box office receipts. While this long-gestating payoff is undoubtedly the work of Marvel movie mastermind Kevin Feige and Avengersdirector Joss Whedon, the important thing is: Disney did not ruin the magic.

Now Whedon has been named storytelling overseer of Marvel’s movie and television world, signed on to deliver the Avengers sequel as well as guide Phase Two of Marvel’s movie plan.

We all know that corporate mergers can yield a wretched hive of scum and villainy. When it comes to corporate overlords and the creative arts, media conglomerates need to take their own version of the medical ethics statement: Primum non nocere (“First, do no harm”). Disney seems to have done no harm to Marvel, or to Pixar, which it acquired in 2006.

In Star Wars’ case, there is some actual corrective surgery to be performed as the franchise attempts to recover from what could be described as 10 years of bad lifestyle choices, which led to bloat and a certain lack of lust for life.

Despite Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ decent animated story arcs, and the promise of a seemingly on-hold-forever Star Wars live-action television show, the world’s most beloved franchise has been one step away from creative life support for years. The franchise needs a good doctor and an attentive medical droid, not a corporate Darth Vader.

With superproducer Kathleen Kennedy remaining at the helm as president of Lucasfilm and Star Wars brand manager, and Disney bringing its moviemaking acumen and its well-oiled but superfluous (in this case, anyway) publicity machine, there’s a chance to once again transport movie fans to a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars can once again take us to a world we’ve never seen before, filled with characters that surprise and intrigue. A world where epic sagas play out in unexpected ways. A world where stories that captivate the young can also entertain adults. A world where new ideas trump an obsession with “fixing” the past.

Like a pint-size hologram delivered by a saucy astromech droid, a vital message of redemption arrived Tuesday from a white knight with giant ears and an enormous paycheck. Star Wars is coming back to the big screen (and not in a money-grubbing 3-D re-release). That’s a message that should offer new hope to Star Wars fans everywhere.